Sunday, December 30, 2012

Mayor Bloomberg loves talking about "accountability." That's what teachers need. It's important, therefore, that we establish parameters that will ensure they are fired for no reason. This, of course, is why we're having conversations about judging teachers by test scores. The methodology is absurd, and does not reflect on how good or bad teachers may be, but at least it will guarantee some of them will lose their jobs.

It's another thing altogether when the fickle finger of fault is pointed toward Mayor Bloomberg. For one thing, he has all that money, and if that's the case, how could anything he does be considered "wrong?" When parents say, in the mayor's own survey, that class size is the most important issue to them, he conflates it with other issues and obfuscates the inconvenient truth with sheer nonsense.

And, when the NYC crime rate goes up, that's not his fault either. The crime rate went up, quite simply, because there are too many Apple devices on the streets, and people just can't keep themselves from swiping them. Apparently, these are otherwise honest, trustworthy citizens, and were it not for the abundance of iPhones on the street, they'd be pursuing one of the many minimum-wage, no-benefit jobs available at the many fast-food franchises that pepper our fair city. According to Mayor Bloomberg's conclusion, they would not be stealing your wallet, your car, your computer (unless it's a Mac), or your big-screen TV. They are driven to theft solely based on that Apple logo.

Oddly, when Mayor Bloomberg closes schools, it's no excuses. You can't say, "Gee, we've got a hundred alternate assessment students no one expected to graduate, and at least we trained them to work a job." That's unacceptable and your school must be closed. And where will those alternate assessment kids go? Well, not to Eva Moskowitz's joint, that's for sure. She doesn't buy into the nonsensical demands that her schools actually represent the population of the neighborhoods into which she's bullied her way. After all, that's how the schools she wants to replace get closed in the first place.

So ask not at whom the finger points, unionized teachers. It points at YOU.

Mayor Bloomberg loves talking about "accountability." That's what teachers need. It's important, therefore, that we establish parameters that will ensure they are fired for no reason. This, of course, is why we're having conversations about judging teachers by test scores. The methodology is absurd, and does not reflect on how good or bad teachers may be, but at least it will guarantee some of them will lose their jobs.

It's another thing altogether when the fickle finger of fault is pointed toward Mayor Bloomberg. For one thing, he has all that money, and if that's the case, how could anything he does be considered "wrong?" When parents say, in the mayor's own survey, that class size is the most important issue to them, he conflates it with other issues and obfuscates the inconvenient truth with sheer nonsense.

And, when the NYC crime rate goes up, that's not his fault either. The crime rate went up, quite simply, because there are too many Apple devices on the streets, and people just can't keep themselves from swiping them. Apparently, these are otherwise honest, trustworthy citizens, and were it not for the abundance of iPhones on the street, they'd be pursuing one of the many minimum-wage, no-benefit jobs available at the many fast-food franchises that pepper our fair city. According to Mayor Bloomberg's conclusion, they would not be stealing your wallet, your car, your computer (unless it's a Mac), or your big-screen TV. They are driven to theft solely based on that Apple logo.

Oddly, when Mayor Bloomberg closes schools, it's no excuses. You can't say, "Gee, we've got a hundred alternate assessment students no one expected to graduate, and at least we trained them to work a job." That's unacceptable and your school must be closed. And where will those alternate assessment kids go? Well, not to Eva Moskowitz's joint, that's for sure. She doesn't buy into the nonsensical demands that her schools actually represent the population of the neighborhoods into which she's bullied her way. After all, that's how the schools she wants to replace get closed in the first place.

So ask not at whom the finger points, unionized teachers. It points at YOU.